How golf and athletics are evolving for a new generation of fans – video

The problem with highlighting golf’s struggles is that those at the summit of the game have never had it so good. The US Open this week offers a record prize fund of $12m (£9.5m). One must look seriously hard at the PGA Tour’s schedule to find a tournament which does not bestow immediate millionaire status on the winner.

And yet the feeling persists that golf is a sport from a bygone age, being left behind by those considered more trendy. Other obvious realities play a part; golf remains time-consuming, not always easily accessible and generally expensive.

In the United States 23.8 million people are considered golfers. “You see two and a half million players enter the game this past year,” says Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour’s commissioner. “That’s the highest number on record, exceeding the 2.4 million in 2000 when Tiger Woods was at the top of his game.

“We have 2.9 million juniors; that’s up 25% since 2011. You look at underneath that number, in 1995, 17% of those juniors were female. Now that’s 33%. So you are seeing growth at the junior level. I get the fact that there’s a lot of discussion on the health – and some of it is negative – but I think there are some really positive trends and storylines underneath it.”

That negativity to which Monahan refers is more prevalent in the UK, where there are reportedly 4.5 million golfers and a steady rather than sharp annual drop. Partly linked to economic scenarios from 2008 onwards, clubs have shut down across the country. And many of those which remain have slashed entry costs in a desperate bid to pull in the generation which will take them into a new era.

Basketball, volleyball and hockey feature regularly on school physical education curriculums whereas golf never does. Although impossible to measure, golf may suffer from historical and accurate perceptions of a discriminatory environment. A firm upside might yet be provided by Olympic participation, which was restored for golf in Rio last summer.

“In terms of the golf clubs themselves, I challenge them,” says Keith Pelley, the European Tour’s chief executive. “I challenge them to think differently. I challenge them to look beyond the rules that have always been there and I think this is critical for the success of our game going forward.

Keith Pelley: ‘I thought golf would be higher in the UK psyche than it is’. Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian

“There are always going to be clubs who stand above the rest but it is all those other golf courses that will succeed and become even more profitable if they engage more people. The way they are going to engage more people is by thinking outside the box. Let them in. What we don’t want to be is a sport for the elite.”

Pelley personifies golf’s quest to remain relevant. The European Tour smartly recruited the Canadian from outside golf in 2015. That is not the way things tend to happen but it was deliberate; Pelley’s fresh eyes were necessary. “I remember during the interview process, talking about: ‘Are you willing to change? Are you willing to look at all facets of your business and be open to adaptation of any aspect of the game?’” he recalls. “They were emphatic that they were. If you aren’t willing to change, you run the risk of falling further and further behind the phenomenal experience that is Premier League football.

“When you look at golf from a UK perspective, I thought it would be higher in the psyche than it is. That led me to the fact that we need to loosen some of the traditions and open up the game to a much younger generation.

I still think walk-up music to the tee is a horrendous idea.

Rory McIlroy

“People’s concentration is different from what it once was. For a 13- or 14-year-old to sit in front of a television for five hours watching golf is not realistic. For them to play golf two or three times a week for that long, with everything else they have at their disposal, is not realistic.”

The European Tour has already experimented with a Golf Sixes team competition. Music has been heard blaring out from certain events, not that it has met with universal approval. “I still think walk-up music to the tee is a horrendous idea,” says the world No2, Rory McIlroy.

More serious is where precisely tournament golf, while maintaining professional interest but attracting a bigger audience, may go. Pelley believes the likes of the Masters and Open Championship will always retain blue-chip status – and these events continue to expand – as more standard tour stops are subject to tweaks.

“The other events run the risk, based on the saturation of content that’s out there, of being vulnerable,” Pelley adds. “That’s where creativity needs to come in. That’s where innovation needs to be at the forefront. I do see a world where there are 72-hole tournaments and there are 10-15 of them but all the others have a different format. A format that engages people in a completely different way.”

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But what of an improved spectator experience? “Play the actual hole that you are watching on your broadcast, right there,” says Pelley. “So if somebody makes a putt for an eagle on the 15th at Augusta, you can do it in your living room. It will happen, it’s going to happen. To be in the shoes of that professional, even just for a second, I do believe that is the future.

“I think a stadium event will happen. Wouldn’t it be terrific to have an incredible video board where you have players on the pitch, so you can see every single shot by every single player. It would be a completely different consumption of the game. Maybe that’s where the six-hole games goes. Maybe it becomes stadium sport.”

McIlroy might have an aversion to Rihanna blaring out at his work but he remains one of the most identifiable and appealing individuals in his sport. “Golf needs characters; look at Rickie Fowler, we need more people like that. Kids can relate to him,” he says. “I think we have to move with the times, moving accordingly with whatever technology is out there; be that virtual reality, live PGA Tour streaming via Twitter or whatever it may be.

“I think people are getting sick and tired of watching tour rounds that are five, five-and-a-half hours long. I understand that, people don’t have the time. Speeding up the game is one of the most important things we need to do.”